Thomas Coxley
Sir Thomas Martin Coxley, 1st Baronet (December 17, 1774 - September 3, 1862) was a British Guards officer and nobleman who served throughout the French Revolutionary Wars and Napoleonic Wars. Early life and family Coxley was born in 1774 in the Coxley family's manor known as Edgeham House just outside of the village of Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. Though the family of Maurice Robert Coxley (1728-1803; Thomas's grandfather) was untitled, they moved in the highest social circles as a result of Maurice's success as a banker in London. As such, they represented a new type of untitled, capitalist aristocrats in Great Britain. Maurice had bought Edgeham House, then in a dilapidated state, in 1767, which previously belonged to the now-extinct Barons Chartwell of Hatfield. Thomas's uncle, Oliver Coxley (1741-1829), was in the British Army during the American Revolutionary War, and saw active service in North America. Thomas, wishing to follow his uncle's example, joined the British Army in 1790 at the age of sixteen, receiving a commission as an ensign. Military service War of the First Coalition The French Revolution, which had begun in 1789, startled Great Britain and the old monarchies of Europe, who began to prepare for war. As such, Ensign Coxley, assigned to the Light Company of the 1st Battalion, Coldstream Guards, was given notice for possible deployment to France or Flanders. In 1792, the French revolutionaries invaded Flanders, and the tension between France and Britain greatly increased. In February 1793, war was declared. With the armies of Revolutionary France in Dutch territory, the British Guards were deployed immediately. Assembled into an ad-hoc brigade, Coxley and the guardsmen sailed across the English Channel, landing at Hellevoetsluis in Holland. Crossing into the Austrian Netherlands, the British set up camp at Tournai. In May 1793, the French probed the British lines, and Ensign Coxley played a part in driving them off. The guards were attacked again at the Battle of Raismes, where Coxley led a counterattack which drove back the French, only to run up against a fortified position and he was forced to retreat. Nevertheless, the French had been forced back and they retreated to Lille. Coxley and the men of the Guards Brigade attacked the French positions in the Battle of Famars, where a convoluted sequence of orders saw an inconclusive end to the engagement. The Allies were nevertheless able to push into French territory, and they began the Siege of Valenciennes in June. Coxley and his men dug trenches closer and closer to the French fortifications before launching a ground attack on the eastern hornworks in July, pushing out the French and securing the town. The British Army conducted a pincer attack alongside the Austrians in August, and Coxley's men succeeded in trapping a French force, but it was able to fight its way out in the Battle of Caesar's Camp. When a French counterattack drove back the Dutch on their flank, the British Guards moved to relieve their allies in the Battle of Lincelles, storming the French positions and driving them back through the town. By this point, the Allies were clear to invade France. The British Army, supported by the Austrians and the Dutch, advanced towards Ypres, eventually taking Furnes before opening the Siege of Dunkirk. Ensign Coxley and the British guardsmen attacked the suburb of Rosenthal later in the month, pushing the French back into Dunkirk proper but running into more serious resistance there. The siege quickly bogged down, and with the Hanoverians on the left flank driven back in a counterattack, the Allies withdrew in early September. Coxley's unit, having blunted an earlier French attack, retreated back to Furnes and held positions there for a few days before pulling back to Thurout. They counterattacked the French pursuing force later in the month at the Battle of Courtrai, during which Coxley's men took Menin. Though the British had succeeded in temporarily halting the French counteroffensive, they were forced to pull back to Ostend. In October 1793, they held back several French attacks, bringing an end to the campaigning season. During the winter, the British regrouped and reorganized, and the beginning of the new year saw Ensign Coxley and his men holding their ground near Saint-Amand. In April 1794, the Allied forces began their general offensive. To support the Austrians in the Siege of Landrecies, the British marched on Le Cateau, with Coxley's men taking Vaux and Prémont and driving back the French. The French attacked in the Battle of Beaumont, in which Coxley held his position at the village of Troisvilles before launching a successful counterattack. In May, however, the French attacked in the Battle of Courtrai and the British were unable to halt them, resulting in the loss of the city. The Allies launched a counteroffensive a week later, and Coxley's unit took part in an action which defeated the French advance forces at Willems. At the Battle of Tourcoing, the Guards drove the French out of Lannoy, Willems and Mouvaux, with with the Austrian forces on their flank halted and pushed back, Coxley's men were forced to make a fighting retreat. The French attacked again at the Battle of Tournay, but Ensign Coxley and the rest of the Coalition forces managed to hold them back, finally retaining control of the important village of Pont-à-Chin. Following the fall of Ypres and a number of other Allied setbacks, the British forces were forced into a general withdrawal. In June, they pulled back east of the Scheldt River. Retreating again, the British abandoned their base at Ostend in favor of defending Antwerp. In July, they withdrew beyond the Dijle River, abandoning Antwerp, crossing into Dutch territory at Roosendaal. Establishing a line at the Aa River, the British made a stand against the advancing French. In September 1794, Coxley's men were attacked in the Battle of Boxtel. After the town's garrison fell, Coxley took part in a counterattack which was aborted mid-way through the battle, ceding the town and the Aa line to the French and withdrawing beyond the Meuse River. Plans were made in October to attack to relieve the besieged city of Nijmegen, but these were not followed up on. After a lull, in December 1794 the French resumed their advance. Coxley and his men held back the French near Tuil and Geldermalsen, but the Allied army left their positions on the Lower Rhine River and withdrew east towards Germany, going through Amersfoort, Apeldoorn and Deventer in January 1795. By spring, the beleaguered troops reached Bremen in Hanover, just after the fall of the Netherlands. Though most of the British forces left the continent in April 1795, Ensign Coxley and his guardsmen remained in Bremen until December, when they finally evacuated, leaving Flanders to the mercy of Republican France. For the next few years, Coxley and his men were stationed in the south of England, where they stood ready to face a prospective French invasion. Coxley was promoted to second lieutenant in 1796. Irish Rebellion In May 1798, the news of the uprising by the United Irishmen in County Wexford reached Lieutenant Coxley and his men, who prepared for immediate deployment to Ireland. The rebellion quickly spread throughout Wexford, and British and Loyalist Irish forces gathered at New Ross to protect County Kilkenny from rebel incursion. Lieutenant Coxley and his men began fortifying the approaches to the town in anticipation of an attack. Early in June, the rebels attacked, beginning the Battle of New Ross. The rebels overran government forces at Market Gate, and Coxley was forced to hold his ground in the town's streets. In chaotic urban combat, Coxley's men slowly managed to push the rebels out of the city. As British forces in Ireland increased over the coming weeks, it was time to crush the rebellion for good. Lieutenant Coxley and his men joined a massive British force which surrounded Enniscorthy, the United Irishmen's sronghold. At the Battle of Vinegar Hill, Coxley led his men up the slope, slowly capturing rebel positions and repelling counterattacks. As the British soldiers took the camp, many engaged in excesses against civilians and prisoners of war. Coxley protested these atrocities, but was otherwise powerless to stop them. The rebels who managed to escape retreated to Three Rocks, and, after the British pursued them, split up to wage a guerrilla campaign. Lieutenant Coxley and his men were involved in counterinsurgency operations in County Kildare throughout August, after which they patrolled the Wicklow Mountains in search of rebel holdouts, mopping up the last resistance in southeastern Ireland. When it seemed as if the rebelllion was all but finished, a force of French regulars landed in County Mayo, in the northwest, in August 1798. They quickly gained ground with the help of the United Irishmen, and Lieutenant Coxley's unit was quickly called to help bring them under control. By September, the British had blocked the French-rebel force from taking Dublin and began to attack their right flank at Carrick-on-Shannon in the Battle of Ballinamuck. Coxley's men attacked and scattered the rebels, driving back the French as well before they surrendered. The British then began to spread out through Connaught, carrying out a campaign of terror which Coxley again protested to no avail. Finally, later in September, the British attacked the last remaining rebel stronghold in the Battle of Killala. Coxley's men drove the rebels from their positions on the Ballina road, ending the battle as well as the Irish rebellion. War of the Second Coalition By 1799, a new coalition had formed after the defeat of the previous one, and was intent on challenging the French Republic's gains in Europe. The British and Russian governments decided on an invasion of Holland to destroy the French puppet state of the Batavian Republic, and so the British Army assembled at Canterbury in England. Lieutenant Coxley and his men landed in Holland in August, coming into contact with the enemy at the Battle of Callantsoog. Coxley's men drove the Dutch from Kleine Keeten, but faced stiff resistance in a Dutch counterattack around Groote Keeten. After securing Nieuwe Diep and Den Helder, the British pushed on.Category:Soldiers in the War of the First Coalition Category:Soldiers in the Irish Rebellion Category:Soldiers in the war of the Second Coalition Category:Soldiers in the Napoleonic Wars Category:Soldiers in the War of the Third Coalition Category:Soldiers in the Peninsular War Category:Soldiers in the War of the Fourth Coalition Category:Soldiers in the Gunboat War Category:Soldiers in the War of the Fifth Coalition Category:Soldiers in the French Revolutionary Wars Category:Soldiers in the War of the Sixth Coalition Category:Soldiers in the War of the Seventh Coalition Category:British soldiers Category:British Commonwealth soldiers